Money and Life

Life is like water. Unless it is contained in a container, it flows away, you can’t pick it up again, and so it is wasted.

This is also true about money. In fact, what happens to the money you get into your hands is a reflection of what is happening to the life you have access to. Can you pay for the things you need and want, or are you often running short of money for them? There is no clearer revelation of what is happening to your life.

Containers for water are dams, reservoirs, pipes and taps, buckets and cups. With them we can use the water for what it is meant for, especially when water is scarce. Money, just like water, is valuable and scarce. That is why the proper containers are so essential.

Life also needs containers if we are to use it for what it is meant for and enjoy the value it can have. What can these containers for life be?

Since money-management is the clearest reflection of life- management, this is where we can find the answers.

Money Management

You have to understand the following concepts

Budgeting is the planned spending of your money, allocating specific amounts of the available money for specific expenses, with the intention not to deviate from these plans.

READY CASH

“Ready Cash” is cash set aside for its optimal use at the right time. Only in such a way can the user obtain the full value of this money. The opposite of this is to spend money indiscriminately (without thinking carefully and wisely about it) which inevitably results in money being wasted.

SAVING

WISDOM WITH MONEY

The first step towards wisdom (in all things), and so also towards wisdom with money, is to accept responsibility.  (Make sure you understand what “responsibility” means and note that being ‘open and transparent’ is very much at the heart of it).

Then realise that money management is the basic training ground for managing life. There is nothing in life that speaks more boldly and more clearly than money.

If ever you blame anyone but yourself for what money you have (or do not have) in your hands, you still fail to understand responsibility. The very last one you should ever think of blaming is God. God in Christ taught very clearly: “If you are not faithful in small matters, you cannot be faithful in big matters. And if you are not faithful with another’s money, who will entrust true riches to you?” This is Gods agenda. He plans and wants to put true riches in your hands (of which money is but a part). But he has to train and prepare you for it. How this training proceeds in your life can clearly be observed by what money you manage to obtain (under God’s coaching) in your hands and what eventually happens to it. Coaching in managing money starts with managing someone else’s money: Children are given pocket money. That money is not their own, it was earned by another. (Usually it was earned by the parent.) They should then learn how to use the money wisely whilst the parents, being the owner of the money, have the interest and the right to suggest the wisdom and to dictate expectations concerning its application.  If you accept God as Father, this perception and its dynamics will apply to the way you manage the money put into your hands.

Real ownership of money can only be earned through honest work, producing the money.

There is no other way to grow in life and to become responsible than by starting off with being a dependent and then being coached into responsibility. It is a physical reality.

The real blame (or praise) for what amount of money is in your hands is on your ancestors (for which you should accept full responsibility – full responsibility! – if you understand responsibility): How they earned money; how they allowed themselves to be coached into wisdom with money; how they coached their descendants (including you) into wisdom with money; how they dealt with the way you accepted their coaching. Then you can also accept blame (or praise) for the money you have in your own hands.

Budgeting is the method through which we apply wisdom with money. But take careful note: When you do personal or household budgeting, you can and should only budget your ‘own’ money. Own money is money which you obtained through your own honest work. Budgeting and using any other than ‘own’ money for personal and household expenses is very unwise and will lead to failure. Any other money available to you over and above your ‘own’ money should not be included in your budget.

If you plan wisely in budgeting, there will still be money left in your hand after all your basic and essential commitments are ‘paid up’. Otherwise you are simply living above your means or living too tightly on your available means. Too tight living is a major source of both stress and distress which rob you of your power to live life in charge of it.

Access to money is power for life

A wise person always has cash in his pocket

To put aside ‘Ready Cash’ is the way to have power for life

BASIC CRITERIA AND WISDOM FOR BUDGETING YOUR OWN MONEY

The first tenth belongs to the Lord. If you offer this up to him in recognition of who he is, you honour him. If you fail to do so, you cannot claim in any way that you truly have regard for him. As simple and as profound as that. If you use this tenth for any other purpose, you are robbing the Lord. The ‘first tenth’ belongs to the Lord. (Note: we point out that it belongs “to the Lord” – not “to God”. There is a profound distinction to be understood.) Comment: If you understand what is meant by your ‘own’ money, you will understand that you can only offer a tenth of your ‘own’ money to the Lord. You cannot offer ‘a tenth’ using other money. Other money does not belong to you. The Lord will accept such an offering as coming from the owner, not from you. You have to serve the Lord from your ‘own’ means, not by means of another’s property. Surely this is at the heart of what honour, service and offering is all about and what the Lord seeks. This does not, however, detract from the possibility of bringing offerings to the Lord of many kind. And all kinds of offerings to the Lord are praiseworthy and recommended. But if you want to offer ‘the tenth’, you can only do so from your own money. Three tenths (approximately) of your money should go for your protection – the roof over your head and enough warmth and care for your body, in basics (not luxuries). Another three tenths (approximately) of your money should serve to empower you daily to be able to earn money. It is needed for things such as food for strength, equipment to be used to make you prepared and able, travelling to take you where you need to be.  Comments: 1) These six tenths then are the measure of what your ‘means’ are for living and what you can afford.

2) If you use any of these six tenths for anything else than the mentioned essentials, you will discover that you are robbing those around you: If you do not supply these essentials through your own money, someone else’s money will have to supply them – they are, after all, essential and should not be neglected. So, if you have these essentials from another, it came your way by being forced (by you) on them. That is, they are being robbed of it (by the force of the need) – even when they consciously decide to give it. It should, by responsibility, not be required of them. If you lack these essentials and nobody has graciously supplied them, you have robbed yourself of them. That is what irresponsibility is. This leaves another three tenths. Here there is freedom.  Comments: 1) Freedom is not meant to be a licence for wastage, freedom is an opportunity to act wisely and to discover the power to live life beautifully. (Simply doing a duty does not require wisdom. Wisdom is only possible when acting with freedom.)  2) So, these three tenths can be used for “Ready Cash”, for “Saving”, for helping others, etc., but, importantly also for “Celebration”. “Celebration” is achieved through luxuries which enhance and beautify life. There are luxuries which enhance life and there are luxuries which drain and ultimately destroy life. Wisdom knows the difference. Life-enhancing luxuries, celebrated, prove the possession of wisdom.  3) The Lord acts to prove himself the Father. There is no clearer way this is revealed than when his children have the power to celebrate life. If you understand this and if you feel called to worship the Father, you will understand how important it is for the last three tenths to be part of your budget in this way and how important it is for you to be a disciple of Him who is the Teacher and the Father of life, the Fountain of wisdom.

CONCLUSION

Through trying and learning how to take hold of life and live it abundantly, you will notice that all the mentioned wisdom with money cannot be applied unless you are in a team through whose agreement and co-operation these things realise. “Life” (and its physical example, money) is like water, unless it is wisely contained in a container, it flows away irretrievably and is lost. There is no other effective container for life than ‘a team with a mission’. There is no other way.

If you are not a member of a powerful household, you are nothing

Definition A ‘household’ is a hierarchy of relationships with a managed economy for the benefit of its members

Access to the power and benefits of a household is through responsible membership.

Corollary  No person other than a member, whether stranger, visitor or friend, has access or claim to the power of a household.